Editor's Note: The Bush administration is whipping up a new war fever over Iran despite the bloody catastrophe still unfolding in neighboring Iraq. In his guest essay, writer Daniel Patrick Welch wonders if the United States is about to watch a new Gulf of Tonkin ploy play out in the Persian Gulf:

I'm putting my mother into bed and the high-pitched urgency of
MSNBC's 'this just in' crisis reporting cuts through evening calm.
Same on CNN, and I don't even bother to check the other channels.

Iran, we are being told, is to blame for the Kerbala attack. We have
always been at war with Eastasia. I can't believe it is happening so
neatly, so on cue and so cutely bundled in such a familiar package.

There is absolutely nothing credible about anything that comes out of
Iraq either through the administration or the mainstream press. War-weary Americans, who spoke loudly and clearly about the question of
more war, are known suckers for official lies.

In the aftermath of
the Cold War, two long-term adversaries were waxing nostalgic about
their governments' respective propaganda. "Yes, but the difference,"
said the Russian, "is that your people believed yours."

And now,
having been lied to by a stream of shameless governments, having
swallowed their leaders' crap about our 'destiny' and 'greatness,' is
it even possible to imagine that we are going to let ourselves get
sucked in again?

Aside from the shrieking of the press echo chamber, the other
relevant headlines of the day include a report that the US is poised
to attack Iran from Bulgarian bases (Turkish Daily News), or that a
US Navy strike group is steaming through the Suez canal to join the
general buildup of US forces in the Middle East (Jerusalem Post). The
Guardian reports that Bush is 'spoiling for a fight with Iran.'

Leave aside the fact that the US government recently tried to fund a
project that admitted--admitted, mind you--to planting fake news
stories to achieve national policy ends. This, of course, would be in
addition to myriad black ops projects denied over the years. Never
mind that the Israeli right wing has been openly clamoring for war
with Iran, leaking stories about how it was prepared to go it alone.

Don't compare the timing of this story with the pending -- albeit
nonbinding --anti-escalation resolution now being prepared
for 'rigorous debate' in Congress.

Just look at Cheney's smug Untouchable smirking face as he tells Wolf
Blitzer that Congress "won't stop us," even as Scooter Libby is
throwing everyone in his Blackberry under the bus. Do pay attention,
too, to Blitzer's complete inability to perform his function as a
journalist. That is a very bad sign.

Also notice the $10 billion
joint project announced today between Iran and a Spanish concern for
development of energy resources, and the multi-billion dollar arms
and energy agreements Iran already has with Russia and China. Are the
neocons completely crazy? Never mind--we already know the answer.

And what the hell is wrong with us? Are we really going to let
ourselves be lied into yet another war, a much bigger one, with a
much more dangerous opponent and with even farther reaching
consequences? The answer seems to be yes.

The Democrats and the press
will not save us from this one. They didn't before, and they won't now -- they're in on the game, and they will do nothing without an enormous
shove. The fact that they are getting ready to debate a toothless
solution while the ships are sailing is chillingly out-of-touch. Our
lives and our future are at stake, and they are looking for sound
bites.

The made-in-USA tinderbox is unstable and about to blow, and the war
profiteers and their puppets lighting the fuse have no concern for
us. The enormous and dangerous forces against them only means more
war, more contracts, and more profits.

There is no way the world is
going to sit back and let the US have its way with world energy
resources without a fight, and we stand warned that we are being
dragged into a virtual Armageddon.

The antiwar movement made a good
show last weekend demanding an end to the Iraq war. It will be too
little, too late unless the people wake up and demand a halt to the
war already under way against Iran.